Join us at Sicko Press Event June 19
June 17, 2007
On Tuesday, June 19, 12 noon at the Liberty Bell, there will be a rally in suppport of Michael Moore’s amazing new movie, Sicko which has its national debut, June 29. It will be shown at the Ritz theaters, Bala, and the Bridge among other places in Philadelphia.
Locally, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals will be welcoming the nurses from the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) to Philadelphia on their way to D.C. They will be promoting the national release of the riveting movie “SiCKO” and building a broad movement for genuine health care reform. “SiCKO” is a new film by Michael Moore which documents real-life health care problems; putting a face on the vast number of Americans who have trouble with their insurance or no insurance at all.
Join us for a Press Event on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at noon at Independence Mall (on Market Street between 5th and 6th streets) to hear speakers, including one of the movie’s stars, discuss “SiCKO” and the need for guaranteed health care for all.
Change in General Meeting Start Time-6:30 PM
May 6, 2007
Please note an error in the time. This special general meeting will start at 6:30 PM and will be a joint meeting with the local National Assoc. of Health Care Executives. The presenters will be Drs. Walter Tsou and Chuck Pennachio who will discuss single payer health care at the national and local level. Please come out for this information session. After the meeting, we will be having a business meeting of the PACDHC.
The location is the same: Penn Newman Center, 3720 Chestnut St, parking in the lot behind the center on Sansom Street.
Bipartisan PA Single Payer Bill Introduced in House
April 12, 2007
Dear Healthcare Leaders:
Please extend your heartiest thanks right away to Reps. Tony Payton (tpayton@pahouse.net) and Dave Steil (dsteil@pahousegop.com ) for co-introducing the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act into the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. This is a huge step for our single-payer movement, and its significance should not be lost on anyone — especially when you realize the degree to which certain individuals have tried to forestall our legislation while paying lip service to single-payer and our citizen lobbying efforts.
On the lobbying front, social workers on Tuesday, and medical students and medical providers on Wednesday pitched more than 100 legislators and legislative aides on the remarkable attributes of the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act. Not one approach was rebuffed; members and staff wanted to learn more; common ground was discovered even with the most conservative legislators — all of whom recognize the same fault lines in the medical industrial complex. As always, follow up is the key to securing commitments.
Keep on organizing, speaking, writing, contributing, blogging, and educating! Now is another very good time to remind your state representative and state senator to co-sponsor (or thank them for co-sponsoring) the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act.
Also, please go check out our improved web site, where you will find new and valuable resources available to all… Plus we have upcoming meetings in Pittsburgh (this good-luck Friday the 13th) and in State College (Saturday the 21st). Details are at www.helpfundpa.org.
Yours in solidarity,
Chuck
Chuck Pennacchio
Executive Director, Health Education & Legislative Progress (HELP) Fund of PA www.helpfundpa.org
chuck@helpfundpa.org
Rendell Encounters Rosie, the Single Payer Activist
April 12, 2007
On 4/12/07, Skostouf@aol.com
Following is background and an encounter I had with Gov. Ed Rendell on Wednesday, 4/4/07, at the Health Care Forum at F&M sponsored by the Lancaster based Progressives 4 PA.
Rosie
The panel included 2 physicians, an economist, an employee benefits executive, HelpFundPA Executive Director Chuck Pennacchio, and arriving late and leaving early, Gov. Ed Rendell. The governor breezed in when Chuck, the last of the 4 previous speakers, was wrapping up. He therefore missed the fact that the 2 physicians and the economist provided evidence supportive of the single payer plan (Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2007, SB300) that Chuck so eloquently promoted. Rendell’s pejorative tone toward Chuck and those of us who support the Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2007, as well as his contradictory statements regarding a single payer plan, was exactly the kind of rhetoric that gives politicians a bad name. Rendell exhibited contempt for the people and physicians but sheer adoration for insurance companies. At one point he joked, “I’d like to wake up tomorrow and comb my hair in a pompadour, but that’s not gonna happen. And passing a single payer health care bill isn’t gonna happen.” The governor accused those of us supporting the single payer bill of engaging in a Quixotic tilting at windmills. When he finished speaking, the governor entertained a few questions and then HAD to leave. Since I had not been given a chance to present my comments/questions, Rendell said I could talk to him on his way out of the building, so I did.
Here’s how that went— lightly paraphrased:
ROSIE: Governor, your political prowess is legendary. If you were to push SB300(single payer) it would have a good chance of passing.
GUV: It can’t work at the state level, only at the national level.
ROSIE: Have you read the bill (which Rendell has in the past said he’d sign if it passes the legislature), because if you had you’d realize that it will work in PA.
GUV: I’ve read it. It can’t work at the state level.
ROSIE: The Harrisburg Patriot and the Philadelphia Inquirer have endorsed our single payer plan.
GUV: It can’t work at the state level.
ROSIE: In your address tonight you stated that during a period of years when inflation rose 16%, health insurance premiums increased 75%. Why would you continue to reward these irresponsible insurance companies who have contributed to our health care crisis.
GUV: ( Not much by way of comment ; changing the subject) The health care plan proposed by presidential candidate John Edwards is a good one .
ROSIE: The Edwards plan is pretty good, and it does lead to a single payer plan.
GUV: Does not!
ROSIE: Does too!
GUV: Does not!
ROSIE: Does too!
Well, you get the idea. As we neared the door, I made one last comment referring to his earlier pompadour remark:
ROSIE: Governor, get yourself some Rogaine, grow that pompadour, and give us single payer health care!!!!!!!!!
For more on single payer see improved site: http://www.HelpFundPa.org
And now, for double-speak(1984) and Rendell-speak…from John Morgan……
Subj: Rendell-speak….single payer…and Rosie’s encounter w. the Guv!
Date: 04/12/2007 10:36:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Skostouf
To: Skostouf
from John Morgan’s http://www.thepennsylvaniaprogressive.com
Rendell’s Dishonesty on Health Care
Ed Rendell likes to say he’d sign a single payer, comprehensive health care bill providing universal coverage but he’s parsing his words. He’s being dishonest because he’s implying he supports such a bill when he does not. The Governor is actually doing everything within his power to stop Senate Bill 300, an actual single payer, comprehensive, universal health care bill, from being introduced and enacted into law.
We caught him lying his way through a health care forum last week in Lancaster when he claimed such a bill has no chance of being passed and that no such a bill has yet to pass anywhere. It did pass in California but they have the exact same obstacle to overcome as here: the Governor. The fact is that unless Ed Rendell wakes up and becomes a real Democrat fighting for the people he’ll never be able to able establish a legacy of taking care of the people much less be able to comb a pompadour.
The fact is if the Governor supports the single payer bill it can be passed and he can sign it into law. Rendell falsely claimed the bill has no Republican support but if he’d bothered to stick around or bothered to listen to the other participants at the forum, or allowed any of them to respond to the questions asked he would have discovered he was wrong about that.
Rendell sold out to the health insurance industry. He took $183,000 from their PAC’s and thousands more in individual contributions from executives of AmeriChoice and other companies preying on the citizenry. They’ve bought off the Governor and now he’s determined to give them what they want: a state requirement that every resident MUST purchase health insurance from one of their companies.
He isn’t telling you that part of the deal however. He’s going about giving lip service to the benefits of single payer while siding with the other side. Instead of realizing he doesn’t have to run for office again and being freed from any obligations he might feel indebted to and doing the right thing for the people of Pennsylvania he’s trying to screw everyone instead. Instead of making his final term in public office about taking care of the people he’s taking care of health insurance companies.
I circulated his petition last year and voted for him in November. Now I regret having done that. It’s a good thing he isn’t running again because as the word gets out about his dishonesty regarding this issue he’ll be losing considerable support. I believed the Governor when he told us he’d sign a single payer bill. I mistakenly thought that meant he supported true health care reform. He doesn’t and he isn’t. His words cannot hide his actions and his actions speak louder than his words. When he announced his plan and the CEO of Highmark was standing beside him we all knew this was nothing more than a corporate welfare program for the health insurance industry.
Rendell said his plan covers mental health but it doesn’t. His own proposed bill says only that all benefits are “limited.” It says nothing about comprehensive care. It also requires health care providers to continue establishing and documenting their indigent care practices which acknowledges his plan doesn’t provide universal coverage. Don’t believe anything Rendell is telling you about his plan or his support for different plans. Read the bills and see for yourself what’s covered and what isn’t.
People are suffering and dying every day at the hands of the insurance industry. These corporations are legally required to serve their shareholders rather you, the insured. That is the fundamental flaw in this system. Our legal system mandates they deny you care so they can maximize profits, that’s how capitalism works. The reason we have government is to take care of the people where private business cannot and health care should be one of those fundamental government operations. Where lives are at stake, where safety nets are crucial, government needs to be there to insure care and treatment, not private business.
The single payer system proposed here is not socialized medicine. No doctors, nurses, aides, or any other care provider would be employed by government. They all remain privately employed. Hospitals and other providers remain private businesses. What we change is the collection of premiums and the disbursement of payments to providers. Instead of these private companies in business for profit or to enrich their financial reserves at your expense, a single state agency collects payroll taxes and a personal income tax (in lieu of a premium) from individuals then uses those funds to pay doctors and hospitals for your treatment. The 20-25% of current health care costs being spent on advertising, CEO salaries and agent commissions is enough to cover all the uninsured. It’s time for a real solution to this crisis and a real solution can never be achieved unless we deal with the biggest obstacle to universal coverage: the insurance companies.
Rendell loves to talk and talk and talk about cutting waste from the system. He goes on and on about emergency rooms and nurses not being allowed to sew stitches, about hospital acquired infections and all that. What he neglects to mention is the biggest single waste of health care dollars: the vast bureaucracy of adjustors, auditors, claims specialists, actuaries, etc. duplicating each others efforts in hundreds of different insurance companies. That’s the largest source of waste in the system and the Governor’s plan does not deal with that problem. Until you do Guv, STFU.
Rep. John Conyers Headlines Community Meeting
March 11, 2007
On March 25 from 1:30-3:30 PM, the Philadelphia Area Committee to Defend Health Care will host a community meeting on single payer health care at the Penn Newman Center, 3720 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Highlighting the meeting will be the Honorable Congressman John Conyers, Jr., (D-MI) who represents the 14th District of Michigan (Detroit). Rep. Conyers is the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and is the prime sponsor of HR. 676. the US National Health Insurance Act.
Also joining the community meeting will be:
Steve Larchuk, JD, chief author of Pennsylvania SB 300, the state single payer bill
Chuck Pennachio, PhD, Exec Director of the Health, Education and Legislative Progress Fund of PA
Walter Tsou, MD, MPH, Phila Area Committee to Defend Health Care
Joel Segal, Health Legislative Aide to Congressman John Conyers
Fabricio Rodriquez, Director of Philadelphia Jobs with Justice, moderator
Congressman Conyers will be speaking about the need for a single payer health care bill in America.
For more information, see our contact information on the right headings.
Fattah announces his health plan
January 27, 2007
Posted on Fri, Jan. 26, 2007
Fattah proposes checkups yearly for the uninsured
“Health care is going to be a priority,” the mayoral candidate said of his latest policy initiative.
By Marcia Gelbart
Inquirer Staff Writer
Mayoral candidate Chaka Fattah wants Philadelphia doctors and other medical professionals to provide free yearly checkups for every uninsured Philadelphian. He also wants city workers, union and nonunion, to get health coverage from the same insurance provider.
He even wants to recast himself as Philly’s own Richard Simmons, leading residents in morning stretches.
“We can’t do the things I want to do” – generate new jobs and expand education programs – “unless our citizens are healthy,” Fattah said yesterday at St. Christopher’s Hospital, where he unveiled a wide-ranging assortment of health-care proposals, the third in a series of policy initiatives released by his campaign. “I’m here to say that health care is going to be a priority of a Fattah administration.”
This makes him the first among five Democratic mayoral rivals to address health care in detail as the campaign for the May 15 primary heats up.
Health insurance costs here, as in other cities, have been skyrocketing. The the cost of insuring city employees is projected to grow by $147 million in the next five years.
“This is one of the key financial issues that is facing the city, and the next mayor is going to have to tackle it, and tackle it fairly quickly,” said Rob Dubow, executive director of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the city’s fiscal overseer.
Fattah proposes lowering costs by using competitive bidding to select a single health insurer to cover the city’s 23,000 municipal employees, and possibly enlarge the pool to include Philadelphia School District workers and others.
Most city employees are now insured by various providers who have contracts with the city’s four municipal unions. Right now, the health-care cost per employee is $12,623.
“Every mayor wants to consolidate stuff to control costs,” said Bob Wolper, a longtime consultant for AFSCME District Council 33, which represents the city’s blue-collar workers. Doing so would hardly be easy, he said.
“The tradition for public-sector workers over the years has been to get a good benefits package in lieu of [higher] wages,” he said, “and so people will be leery about tearing it apart and starting from scratch.”
District Council 47 president Tom Cronin, whose members are mostly white-collar municipal workers, declined comment for now on Fattah’s plan, except to call it “a serious proposal.”
While the use of a single provider could lower expenses, other parts of Fattah’s plan would cost money, such as renovating the city’s district health centers and expanding their hours into the evenings and weekends.
The plan included no item-by-item cost analysis, but Fattah said the entire initiative would cost $27 million to $36 million a year.
Some of the proposals would cost nothing. For instance, he envisions an all-volunteer network of medical professionals to give free annual checkups to the city’s 140,000 uninsured residents.
This idea drew a cautious welcome from the head of a doctors’ group. “I think if it were organized, and if it were distributed fairly, physicians might be willing and able to provide services in kind as it were,” George M. Wohlreich, director and chief executive officer of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, said last night.
Other ideas on Fattah’s list have been under way in the Street administration, such as removing lead paint from buildings citywide. And one proposal reads as if written by Street, a fitness buff: If elected, “Fattah will begin each of his quarterly visits to the 10 Councilmanic districts with an exercise event, during which he will lead people from the neighborhood in a morning exercise activity.”
Phila Health Center 3-5 month wait
January 9, 2007
Press release
Contact: Brady Russell,
Organizer, 267.971.1680
Report: It takes too long to see a city doctor
Low-income workers and the uninsured call for an accessible public primary care system
(Philadelphia – 1/9/2006) – The medically uninsured are waiting as long as five months to get into City run District Health Centers for the first time, according to a new report by the Philadelphia Unemployment Project [P.U.P.] called “Waiting: 3-to-5 months for first appointments at District Health Centers.” This morning, members of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project [P.U.P.] gathered outside of Health Center #2 with their supporters to release the report and call on the city to do more for people without insurance.
“We want the Health Centers to have enough staff so people can be seen,” said Irma Sumler, a member of P.U.P’s Health Care Committee and user of Health Center #3. “We also want the hours extended every night and regular hours on Saturday. The people working without insurance can’t afford to take off to go to the doctor.”
According to the most recent data from the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation’s Community Health Database [http://www.phmc.org/chdb/], nearly 140,000 people are living without health insurance in Philadelphia. Nationally, 82% of them are in families headed by workers, and 59% of uninsured workers work full-time.*
“People assume that if you’ve got a full time job, then you don’t have a problem with health care. The truth is that most uninsured people have jobs. We can see that in entry level jobs people don’t get the benefits that provide health care. How can you look for work or expect to work if you don’t believe you have a way to protect the health of you and your family?” Andre Butler, chair of the P.U.P board and Health Center #10 user, said.
Sumler said she continued using the Health Center even after she got onto Medicare and no longer had to. She said she likes going to the health centers, but added that she’s seen services diminish as staff have moved on or retired, “They used to be a one-stop shop for everything you needed, which is how it should be.”
The “Waiting” report compiles the results of several dozen calls made by PUP members and staff on two different occassions (first in the Summer and then in the Fall), calling all the health centers to ask for a first appointment for an uninsured, Philadelphia resident. While a few people were offered appointments within a month, that was only sporadically. Over two-thirds of the callers were offered appointments at least three months out, some as late as five months out.
The results come as no surprise to long-time supporters and users of District Health Centers. Sue Rosenthal, chair of Health Center #10’s Community Board, issued a statement on behalf of all the Community Board chairs, “We – the chairs of the eight Philadelphia Health Center Community Boards – are deeply disturbed by the results of your research … It is our hope your report will galvanize the Administration to relieve the unnecessary misery and danger caused to Health Center patients by the Administrations unconsionable delays.” Rosenthal explained that the City failed to hire for the new positions approved for the Health Centers in the 2006 budget and did a poor job of refilling empty positions.
Richard Weisshaupt, Senior Attorney at Community Legal Services, said: “The kind of wait times documented by PUP are simply not acceptable — we would not tolerate such delay in other City services essential to public health and safety, like police and fire. Hopefully, the uncovering of this scandal will be the first step towards fixing this terrible problem.”
Currently, each District Health Center has a different night of the week that it stays open later than 4:30 PM. Only Health Center #2 has Saturday hours, which run from 8AM to Noon. All residents of Philadelphia may access District Health Centers, whether or not they have insurance. To find a Health Center near you, call, (215) 685-6790.
###
The Philadelphia Unemployment Project [PUP]is a membership organization of unemployed and low-wage workers. It began in 1975 to help meet the needs of the unemployed during that year’s recession. PUP has remained a leader in the struggle for economic justice in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
Rendell to push health coverage
December 12, 2006
From today’s Philly Inquirer. Sounds like a proposal to support nurse practitioners and not a supporter of single payer.
He plans a major initiative to insure more people and to make care more efficient.
By Amy Worden and Angela Couloumbis
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG – Gov. Rendell next month will unveil a plan to greatly expand health-care coverage for the uninsured while attempting to rein in spiraling health-care costs, a move he said was sure to produce “widespread squawking.”
In what is likely to be a key initiative of his second-term agenda, Rendell yesterday offered few details about the two-pronged proposal, except to say it was aimed at providing medical coverage to roughly one million uninsured Pennsylvanians and targeting providers with cost-containment measures.
Speaking at his annual year-end interview with Capitol reporters, the governor said he felt compelled to act because of the increasing number of uninsured residents in Pennsylvania.
“It used to be that health care was a poor people’s issue,” he said. “… But now, retirees who thought they had health care that was guaranteed for life are seeing that health care vanish and disappear. Workers, each time their contract is up, having to co-pay more and more for their own health care… . So even if I am a worker who has health-care coverage, I’m worried.”
It was unclear how much of Rendell’s proposal could be completed through the regulatory process or executive order, and what elements would need legislative approval.
Hinting that a possible battle with the General Assembly was looming, Rendell challenged all parties involved to find the “intestinal fortitude to look down the barrel of the special interests” to support the proposal.
“This plan will mete out pain to everybody in the health-care delivery system – everyone,” said Rendell. “It will step on everyone’s toes. It will make everyone tighten their belts. It will make everyone have to do things more effectively and efficiently.”
The governor did tick off several cost-cutting measures he said he would include in next month’s proposal, including implementing measures to reduce infections that patients might get while in the hospital; changing regulations to allow nurse-practitioners to handle some duties now performed under the supervision of doctors; and adding new sections within hospital emergency rooms, staffed by nurse-practitioners, to treat minor ailments and injuries.
Referring to the expanded insurance coverage, Rendell made it clear yesterday that his proposal would not follow Massachusetts’ universal health-care plan, set to go into effect next spring, which works through government funding and pooled contributions from employers.
Rendell said his insurance proposal would follow the model of how he expanded the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) this year “with pay-ins depending on your income level.”
“I’m not proposing a single-payer system,” he said. “A single-payer system means that [a private employer] doesn’t need to have its own health-care plan because everyone goes into one statewide plan, but then everyone pays significant taxes to fund that plan.
“We think that is less achievable and less workable,” he said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1.3 million Pennsylvania residents – 10.5 percent of the state’s population – lacked health insurance in 2005.
Several groups representing hospitals and doctors said yesterday that they did not want to weigh in on the governor’s plan until they could review the complete proposal.
In general, however, most agreed that changes needed to be made – the debate would be over what those changes should be.
“Any systemic reform is going to involve a lot of different stakeholders and no doubt there will be robust debate of every piece of it,” said Andrew Wigglesworth, president of the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council, an association of hospitals and health systems in Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Chuck Moran, director of media relations for the Pennsylvania Medical Society, said some of the group’s members had participated in committees Rendell had put together during the last year to study the health-care issue. Those members, he said, “have been sworn to secrecy.”
But Moran said the society believes physicians and nurse practitioners must be “partners,” and that any concerns about expanding the powers of nurses “usually involve invasive procedures, and what kinds of medication they can prescribe.”
Others, such as Roger Baumgarten, spokesman for the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, pointed out that there is a shortage of nurse practitioners in Pennsylvania.
“We look forward to seeing how that is addressed as well,” he said.
Rendell said studies show that nurse practitioners can handle 70 percent of what doctors do, so there was no reason not to use nurse practitioners more widely.
“I want to free nurse practitioners to virtually do anything that they are capable of doing and unlock all the regulations and restrictions and put them back into the game,” he said. “You don’t open up brain surgery to nurse practitioners, but those things that academics believe they can do, they can do.”
Rendell used himself – and the state’s insurance plan – as an example to illustrate how health-care costs can be cut. He said he was recently notified that if he wanted to continue taking the brand-name anti-cholesterol drug Zocor, he would have to pay $160 per prescription, compared with $10 for the generic version.
“I panicked because I’ve done so well on Zocor and my doctor had me read the generic that they had specified, and in the end, my doctor said don’t worry, it’s exactly the same,” said Rendell. “The point is, we are doing things that businesses should be doing. And we want to make it easier for businesses to do those things.”
Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@phillynews.com.
Single payer video from Calif
December 9, 2006
While about single payer in California, you may find this an interesting video explaining single payer.
Calling All Penna Single Payer Advocates
November 29, 2006
This is a chance for state health care leaders who wish to push for single payer health care to meet with other leaders across Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania health leadership committee action conference #2
December 15, 2006 – 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
West Chester University, Pennsylvania
Over 35 leaders of health care reform oriented organizations, from all corners of the Commonwealth, attended the first action meeting in Harrisburg last month. A tremendous amount was accomplished including the formation of a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization:
Health Education and Legislative Progress Fund of Pennsylvania, Inc. – the “HELP Fund”
We set as our goal a fund raising target of $1 million to support a well organized and staffed campaign to achieve passage of the Balanced and Comprehensive Health Reform Act* by Thanksgiving 2007.
This is the opportunity for every organization, large or small, to join together to assure health care reform that works for families and business.
West Chester University – Graduate Business Center
1160 McDermott Drive, West, Chester PA 19380
Directions: From the PA Turnpike (Eastbound or Westbound)and from PA 76 (The Schuykill), Take the King of Prussia Exit to Route 202 S, toward West Chester. Travel approximately 13 miles south to the Boot Road Exit (next exit beyond Route 30/Frazer, Exton exit), turn left onto Boot Road. At second traffic light (in front of a fire station), turn right onto Greenhill Road. Travel about 1/2 mile to McDermott Drive on the left (there is a daycare – Chesterbrook Academy on the corner). Turn left onto McDermott Drive, the WCU, GBC is the second building on the right (directly behind the daycare). Nadine Bean can help the lost through her cell phone number: 610-220-1345
Hotels: Hampton Inn, Great Valley, 635 Lancaster Avenue,Frazer PA (at Route 202 & 30) – (610) 699-1300; Sheraton Great Valley, 707 Lancaster Avenue, Farzer PA (also at @Rts. 202 & 30) – (610) 524-5500; Microtel Inn & Suites, 500 Willowbrook Lane, West Chester PA (just south on 202 from the GBC), (610) 738-9111.
* For information about the Balanced and Comprehensive Health Reform Act – www.pahcsc.org
Questions and RSVP please – 412-749-1882
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